Former Malaysian PM calls Britain 'state terrorist'

Britain's chief diplomat in Malaysia stormed out of a human rights' conference today after the UK and US were condemned as "state terrorists" by the country's retired prime minister.

Malaysia's former leader, Mahathir Mohamad, launched the scathing attack on both countries for invading Iraq, blaming them for thousands of Iraqi civilian deaths.

The British high commissioner, Bruce Cleghorn, and several British and European diplomats walked out in protest of Mr Mahathir's speech. The US embassy had not sent officers to the event.

"The British and American bomber pilots came, unopposed, safe and cosy in their state-of-the-art aircraft, pressing buttons to drop bombs, to kill and maim," Mr Mahathir said. "And these murderers, for that is what they are, would go back to celebrate 'Mission Accomplished'.

"Who are the terrorists? The people below who were bombed, or the bombers? Whose rights have been snatched away?"

Afterwards, Mr Cleghorn said he had attended the conference out of respect for Mr Mahathir who was the prime minister of Malaysia, where the majority of the population is Muslim, for 22 years before retiring in 2003.

Mr Mahathir regularly launched visceral attacks on the West and Israel while in power. He said rich countries held back developing nations and discriminated against Muslims.

At a news conference later, he said: "If you terrify people then you are a terrorist, and the people of Iraq are terrified of being bombed. They (the US and Britain) are state terrorists."

When in power, Mr Mahathir was a US ally in the fight against terrorism but bitterly opposed the Iraq and Afghan wars.

The US administration launched the Iraq invasion because it alleged Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction which "we all know was a lie", he said. Mr Mahathir co-chairs the international Emergency Committee for Iraq, which was formed in June to ensure Saddam's trial is fair.

"When you are being tried by a government that is hostile to you," he said today, "justice is not likely to be done."

He said trial judges should be from countries not directly involved in the invasion. He also questioned why there was no tally of Iraqi deaths, and defended his own government's human rights record, often criticised by the West.